由美国前劳工部长罗伯特•里奇等人创建的开明智库经济政策研究所（Economic Policy Institute）本周三在自己的网站上刊登了一篇评论，开篇第一段就扼要地论述了这样做的目的所在：

    “一年多来，围绕苹果（Apple）应该如何处置其庞大的现金储备（如今已高达1,370亿美元）展开的热烈讨论引人瞩目。奇怪的是，种种提议几乎都是一边倒地探讨如何用这些现金回馈股东。讨论几乎从未涉及这些现金是否也应该用于为海外制造苹果产品的工人和在美国销售苹果产品的员工提供更加公平合理的薪酬。它只是大范围失衡趋势的一个缩影：给予员工的经济回报比例正在下降。”

    这个提议可不是很多苹果投资者希望听到的，特别是眼下，苹果股价已经从去年9月的高点下跌超过了36%。但正如作者伊萨克•夏皮罗所指出的一样，长期股东没有什么好抱怨的。如果过去5年一直持有这只股票，它的投资市值已经增长超过了3倍。

    没有获得充分回报的是苹果零售店的3万名雇员，他们的薪水低到只有25,000美元/年。而且，约100万名亚洲合同工每个月如果不算加班收入，工资仅225-288美元。

    夏皮罗没有抹杀苹果为提高亚洲供应链系统员工的薪酬水平和工作环境所做出的努力，也没有说苹果的竞争对手做得更好。

    但他指出，苹果承诺过的一些事情并没有兑现。

    例如，2012年3月，苹果曾经承诺，在富士康工厂组装苹果设备的工人过去未获得报酬的工作时间将获得补偿，包括参加班前会和班后会的时间、用于参加强制性培训的时间，和一天多达30分钟的“临时加班”时间。

    据夏皮罗称，这些补偿都没有发放，而且，近期似乎也不准备发放。

    他平心静气地给出了更多的例子，比如，苹果给股东发放了450亿美元现金，同样没有苹果工人的份儿。

    正如我所说的，在苹果股票继续下跌的过程中，这种声音可能是苹果投资者最不愿听到的，但它会在某种程度上抑制增加派息和进行数十亿美元股票回购的要求。（财富中文网）

    The first paragraph of the commentaryposted Wednesday on the website of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank founded by, among others, Clinton-era labor secretary Robert Reich, lays out the thrust of the argument pretty succinctly:

    "For more than a year, there has been a high-profile debate over what Apple should do with its enormous cash reserve, now amounting to $137 billion. The proposals have been curiously one-dimensional, with a nearly exclusive focus on how the reserves should be used to reward its shareholders. Almost entirely absent from the discussion has been whether those reserves should also be used to provide fairer compensation to the workers making its products abroad or selling its products here. This imbalance is part and parcel of a larger trend: the share of economic rewards going to workers is diminishing."

    It's not an idea many Apple (AAPL) investors are going to want to hear, especially with the stock down more than 36% from last September's highs. But as author Isaac Shapiro points out, long-term shareholders have nothing to complain about. Those who stuck with the company over the past five years have seen the value of their investments grow more than three-fold.

    Less amply rewarded are the 30,000 Apple Store employees who make as little as $25,000 a year. Or the roughly 1 million Asian contract workers who take home, before overtime, between $225 and $288 per month.

    Shapiro doesn't diminish the work Apple has done to raise pay scales and improve working conditions in its Asian supply chain. Nor does he suggest that Apple's competitors are doing better.

    But he does point out that some of the pledges Apple made have not been fulfilled.

    For example, in March 2012 Apple promised that workers assembling Apple's devices in Foxconn's factories would be compensated for hours they had worked in the past that had not been paid for, including pre- and post-shift meetings, time spent in mandatory trainings, and as many as 30 minutes of "unscheduled overtime" on any given day.

    According to Shapiro, none of that back pay was ever issued, and it appears that none is forthcoming.

    He's got more examples, laid out fairly dispassionately, in $45+ billion for Apple shareholders, nothing yet for Apple workers.

    As I say, it's probably the last thing Apple investors want to hear on yet another down day for the stock, but it does put those demands for bigger dividends and multibillion dollar stock buybacks in some perspective.